Creative Types

Altadena resident (and native) Michelle Huneven is one of our finest writers, and if you doubt it for a moment, pick up her third novel, Blame, just published by Farrar Straus Giroux. A quietly captivating tale of a talented and beautiful Pasadena professor who struggles with alcoholism, men and, most of all, the guilt for […]

Our pal Adrienne Crew has a lovely interview on the L.A. Weekly‘s excellent food blog, Squid Ink, with Julia Child Prud’homme, namesake to her famous great-aunt. Julia the younger, an actress who now lives in Hollywood, grew up in southwest Pasadena and shares memories about visits there with her great-aunt and uncle. If you’ve seen […]

I first met Rebecca Bonebrake while we were both working at a nonprofit theatre camp a couple hours outside of L.A. I was wary when we were paired up as counselors, but I soon found that my concerns were unfounded. Beyond having the best name ever, she was fun and entertaining, and I’d never been […]

As promised, here’s Part 2 of our Q & A with Pasadena artist Jacquelyn McBain; here’s a link to Part 1. Jacquelyn McBain doesn’t produce a lot of work, but she works very, very hard, which is evident when you see her paintings — they are astonishingly detailed, richly colorful and as meticulously crafted as […]

Pasadena artist Jacquelyn McBain doesn’t produce a lot of work, but she works very, very hard, which is evident when you see her paintings — they are astonishingly detailed, richly colorful and as meticulously crafted as any of the Old Masters. Her work doesn’t get to be seen often enough locally; she is represented by […]

A true daughter of the San Gabriel Valley, Trish Albright grew up in Pasadena’s Hastings Ranch, escaping her hilly suburban neighborhood to romp in the wilds of Eaton Canyon and catch polliwogs in the streams of Sierra Madre. Her mother says, “Her nose was always in a book,” and Trish used to teased her friends […]

Victoria Patterson and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Chris Patterson first discovered South Pasadena in 1993, when Chris was accepted in a graduate program at Art Center. They scored an affordable apartment above the dry cleaners at Huntington and Fletcher, she found a job at Julienne, and they set out to be artists: her a writer, him […]

The other day I was walking down Mission Street and stumbled upon a new shop: Common Thread Studio. It had opened only the week before, and it’s like no other boutique in South Pasadena — the front retail space sells journals, sewing kits, jewelry and whimsical fabric-based gifts, and the airy, open studio space in […]

We have lots of creative people in my Prospect Park neighborhood — composers, writers, artists, producers, teachers, gardeners extraordinaire — but neighbor Lian Dolan is a class by herself. Sharp, observant, wry and downright hilarious, Lian first won national notice as one of the Satellite Sisters, the radio talk show run by the five Dolan […]

The first graders at Marengo School in South Pasadena know her as Ms. McNulty, a fun and funny teacher. But the attendees at the recent Professional Photographers of California 2009 Expo (held at the Pasadena Civic Center) know her as Suzanne McNulty the winner — as in the winner of 1st, 2nd and 3rd place […]